The NoWait App: Because Queuing and Waiting is So Passé

With the NoWait app, queuing in line in a restaurant is a thing of the past. (Photo : Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

Queuing is a part of modern life: there are queues at store checkout counters, airplane or ferry boarding, and there even queues at restaurants. It seems to be an inevitable result of urbanization where a lot of people want the same thing at the same time, be it service, commodity or food.

There is actually an app that could greatly help in these situations, well at least on the restaurant queuing part. Launched back in 2014, the aptly named app called NoWait has been so successful that it is now seating over 25 million restaurant customers in a month. Since its introduction, it has assisted a total of 250 million restaurant diners in less than two years, according to TechCrunch.

The app is also easy to download and is available in both iOS and Android platforms. To date, there were over 3 million downloads for the app indicating its popularity among restaurant goers. In fact, the company projects that this year, 5 million restaurant dinings will be coursed through the app.

What exactly does NoWait offer that diners are hooked to the service? Ultimately, NoWait saves people time according to its website. The app lets diners browse nearby restaurants and see their waiting times. In addition, the app offers the convenience of having to queue electronically, not physically. And when it is the diner's turn to be served, meaning that a table is already available, the app notifies the NoWait user making the dining experience hassle-free.

On the restaurant's side, NoWait offers the optimization of waitlists and table turnovers which maximize the restaurant's dining capacity. In addition, being affiliated with the app means the potential to tap the apps' rising number of users. This explains why almost 4,000 restaurants are already using the platform.

But it even gets better. Currently, NoWait is testing a mobile payment scheme integrated into the app itself. With this feature activated, one can pay for one's orders in a breeze instead of having to wait for the check to arrive. Currently, 20 restaurants have signed up for beta testing of this new payment option. Once the kinks have been ironed out, it would be available to the rest of the NoWait-affiliated establishments as well.

If one is the typical diner who doesn't want to wait in line or even wait for the check, then NoWait is the perfect app for a hassle-free dining experience.